Opening its pubs for breakfast has given a lift to JD Wetherspoon, but with the market heading lower as investor caution returns, its shares have lost around 1.5%.

The company said full year profits were up 7.3% to £71m, bang in the middle of analyst expectations, despite flat like-for-like sales. In the six weeks since the end of its financial year, like for like sales were up 1.5% and it said its performance continued to be resilient. It opened 47 new pubs during the year and closed three, and expects to open a similar number this year.

It claims to be the only major pub company to open at 7am and now sells more than 400,000 breakfasts and 600,000 coffees a week, a 40% increase. But chairman Tim Martin, never missing a chance to air his views, added:

The biggest danger to the pub and catering industry is a continued increase in taxes and regulations. It is to be hoped that the UK government's attitude towards pubs, in particular, changes and that a co-operative and helpful, rather than a punitive, approach is adopted.

Good luck with that. Meanwhile the company said it was likely to pass on January's VAT increase to customers, otherwise it would cost the business £25m. In a weak market the company's shares are down 6.6p at 436.9p. But analysts are still fairly positive. Nigel Parson at Evolution Securities said:

Wetherspoon's strong budget proposition continues to deliver a resilient trading performance and tough conditions is allowing it to pick up new sites at better than historic costs. It opened 47 pubs last year and should open another 50 pubs this year. It's one of the few secular growth stories in the sector. We retain our buy recommendation but have trimmed our target price to 500p from 550p to reflect the tougher outlook.

Overall the FTSE 100 is down 9.90 points at 5484.26, with energy companies under pressure. Tullow Oil is 25p lower at £12.38 while BG has fallen 16p to 1078.5p.

But the two government controlled banks are heading higher, with Lloyds Banking Group up 1.48p to 76.15p and Royal Bank of Scotland rising 0.88p to 49.03p. But ahead of this weekend's expected agreement on new tougher capital controls for banks - albeit less stringent than originally expected - Barclays is 3.95p lower at 319.4p. Already Deutsche Bank is reportedly planning a €9bn fundraising to boost its capital position, and other banks may have to follow.